Pat Parker is a legend in the League of Women Voters. A former state president in Illinois and Georgia, and an active member well into her 90s, Parker was known for doing whatever needed to be done.
“We have so many dedicated people in the League that it is hard to count them, but even in an organization like that, Pat stood out,” said Elisabeth MacNamara, national president of the League of Women Voters. “She was always there as a source of wisdom and a source of inspiration.”
Patricia Sheehan Graves Parker of Atlanta died March 5 at her home from complications of several ailments. She was 102. Her body was cremated by Wages & Sons Funeral Home.
According to her will, she requested that she be cremated, that no services be held and no flowers be sent, said her son Scott Parker. In the legal document she asks that her “friends remember her as best they can.”
Born Dorothy Sheehan in Springfield, Ill., Parker wasn’t fond of her first name. She changed it to Patricia, and preferred to be called Pat, when she was 13. Parker might have been on her way to becoming a world-class musician when she accepted a full scholarship to a music college in Chicago, graduating in the 1920s with a degree in piano and composition. But when she met Darrell Graves, and the couple married in 1929, she decided to become a homemaker, her son said. Parker and Graves had a daughter, and they were married for 16 years when he was killed in 1945, just before the end of World War II.
Two years later, in 1947, Parker married Raymond Parker, and they eventually had a son. The couple would have celebrated 66 years of marriage in April.
While living in Deerfield, Ill., Pat Parker became involved with the League of Women Voters, where she served a term as the state president in 1965, according to an organization newsletter. In 1973 the Parkers moved to Georgia, and she served as secretary and treasurer in the League before becoming state president for a three-year term. During her time as president, the organization “lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment and developed partnerships with WSB-TV and the Young Lawyers of Georgia to produce public service announcements,” the newsletter says.
“Pat was one of those people who kept things running,” said Sally Byers, a friend of 20 years and a member of the DeKalb County League of Women Voters. “She did a lot of detailed work, and she seemed to be able to do more than a lot of other people.”
MacNamara echoed similar sentiments, saying, “When I met her, in the DeKalb chapter, she had just quietly taken on keeping up with all of our members and our bookkeeping. And this was way before databases and things like that.”
“She was the person you could always go to, who’d have all of the information you needed at her fingertips,” MacNamara said.
In addition to her son and husband, Parker is survived by her daughter, Patricia Nelson of Potsdam, N.Y.; two grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
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